If you find yourself rebooting the router with any regularity, the DD-WRT and Tomato firmware options both have timed reboot options. Set it to reboot once a day, while you’re sleeping and you’ll never even notice the down time while it powers off and starts back up.

Get a Better Antenna

The antenna (or antennas) on most consumer grade routers is flat out awful. An amplified aftermarket antenna is a great fix and a simple way to improve signal quality without the need for a new router. Powered and amplified aftermarket options start at around $10 to $15 and range all the way up into the low $100s.

Disable Older Wireless Protocols

Newer routers on the 802.11ac protocolShould You Buy A Wireless 802.11ac Router?Should You Buy A Wireless 802.11ac Router?802.11ac promises blistering speeds, but many consumers are just now getting around to upgrading to 802.11n, leaving many to wonder if the new version is worthwhile.Read More offer capabilities far exceeding many ISPs service offerings. While the router might be fast, many of your devices are probably using older protocols – such as 802.11g – which slows the entire network down as soon as this device connects. To fix the problem, you’ll log in to your router and change the 802.11 mode to only allow newer protocols.

In case you’re wondering, the fastest protocols, in order of fastest to slowest, are:

ac

n

g

b

Try to remove any device using the “b” or “g” protocol.

Change the Channel Width

Routers typically come with two channel width settings, 20MHz and 40MHz, the latter being primarily for newer routers which require using wider wireless channels. This, however, has detrimental affects for devices on older protocols as it often leads to interference due to the wider channel setting. This adjustment won’t change how fast you’re capable of browsing the web, but it will increase the speed of streaming or transferring files between machines on your network.

Keep Your Router Updated

Much like everything other electronic device, routers are subject to regular firmware updates by the manufacturer. These updates are often security fixes and won’t have much (or any) impact on speed, but that doesn’t mean you won’t squeeze incremental value out of them – especially if you haven’t updated the firmware in a while.

Essentially what you’re doing here is opening up another lane for network traffic. While a one-lane road will ultimately get you there, two (or three) is better for everyone involved. Instead of all your devices competing for space in the 2.4GHz band, you could assign some to the additional (and typically less crowded) 5GHz band. If you have a tri-band router, you may assign network traffic to a 2.4GHz band and two 5GHz bands. Moving forward, you can pick and choose the least crowded band, or segment your devices on to separate bands for increased network efficiency down the road.

Lock Down Your Router From Thieves and Hackers

An unfathomably high number of otherwise tech-savvy people still use the default username and password on their router. Intermediate hackers are capable of hacking even relatively secure networks with non-default passwords. If you’re still using the defaults, you’re just inviting hackers into your network to use it however they like.

The Wi-Fi password is equally important. While you might do a great job of splitting your devices up into separate bands, updating your firmware, and switching channels during high traffic periods, it’s all an exercise in futility if your neighbors are piggybacking your Wi-Fi and using it to torrent movies all day.

Install New Firmware

Many routers keep the settings relatively dummy-proof so that you don’t screw anything up. While this is great for most users, sometimes you just want to dive in and hack the settings until you’re running a router that far exceeds its price tag.

You mention the channel usage is crowded and you are trying to use HT40... If there is even 1 more fairly strong network nearby, HT40 is not going to be a stable option. Drop back to HT20. If you REALLY need higher speeds, your best bet is to look to 5GHz band. HT20 will also always give you significantly better range compared to HT40. HT40 might give you better speeds for clients that support it but it will reduce the range for ALL clients.

If nearby networks are primarily using channels 1,6,11 - stick with 1 of those. Don't pick something in between or it will cause even more interference for yourself and them. Choose the channel with the weakest neighbouring signal. Aim to keep at least 2 (preferably 3) unused channels in between each network. If neighbouring networks are using silly channels like 2,3,7,8,9,12... Then not much you can do except pick one with least overlapping and weakest signals. InSSIDer is good at visualising channel usage and overlapping and coexisting networks. Check for other HT40 networks - they will be sucking up either channels 1&6 or 6&11. Realistically using channels 1-11, there is only room for 1 HT40 network and 1 HT20, or 3 HT20's. There is not room for 2 HT40's. To be a good WiFi neighbour, people really should not use HT40 at all unless they are a long distance from anyone else. If you REALLY need higher speeds, you need to move to 5GHz which has a lot more channels compared to 2.4GHz.

Adjust your Sensitivity range. Realistically, how far do you need it to reach? 2500 will optimise it to reach 1250 meters from the router (2500/2). That's a long way and I doubt you would even see the signal from that distance. If the furthest point in your house from the router is say 250m, try setting it to 500 (250*2). Default I believe is 2000 and even this is usually too much for most home routers.

Try increasing the Tx power if it has any effect on the output power (some routers will have a hardware limit that DDWRT can't exceed). Measure the signal dB power at the furthest point you want to use it from. If it is weak (below -72 dB) and you can't increase the power any more, then repositioning or an extender/repeater/2nd network may be the only choice. If the signal power is quite strong, other factors may be at play such as interference, channel selection, other router settings.

another free program to discover how crowded the WiFi spectrum is and to help decide the best channel to use is 'inSSIDer'.
as for the best location for the router generally it should be near the center of the home and above head height in a single floor home and in a 2 story home near the ceiling of the first floor or near the floor of the second floor (not near the roof, you are getting too far away from the lower floor).

I tried the TP-Link RE200 AC750 WiFi range extender repeater. Within a day I could no longer use WiFi calling on my cell phone, I didn't connect that It could be this repeater. After a week I thought to unplug it and everything was back in business. I sent it back to Amazon. One has to be careful don't believe everything you read. Most routers are supplied by ATT and the cable companies and you can only tinker in very small ways. Document any changes you make on paper, so you can put the settings back later. If you don't you will incur the cost of the repairman from the internet company and its no fun.

Have read when using a dual band router that disabling the lower speed band ( b and g ) and using an older router for the slower protocols makes the newer router work better...is that so? How do you make 2 wireless routers work together? Thanks

OK Let's do a "Router Speed for Dummies" session. I use OpenDNS, have set up a WPA2 password, and have placed my router several inches above the ground, where it rarely overheats.

Which step would be the most likely thing to increase speed? I've never even thought of the different letters for different wireless protocols. I've heard about open source router firmware but have never had a problem with the native client.

Given that I don't have a problem ATM, I'd rather not spend a few hours in a wild goose chase. Is there one extra tweak that would be most likely to give me a boost?

If your router is overheating at all, then that's an issue for both sustainability and slows any router down. I'd make sure your router is well ventilated and functioning properly. (The latter will take more effort.) Electronics likes to be cool. Raising your router up higher will likely be the easiest thing to do to improve it's performance with regards to speed. Mine, along with the cable modem is in the middle of the house, inside the HVAC cupboard which is well ventilated and on the highest shelf. If I lived in a 2 story home, it would be on the 2nd story at it's highest point and so on.

I've found two things that always tend to help, either height, or power, and of course both. Either, or both will further the reach of the router. A better way to put it is more ways to provide access for the remote devices and vice versa. (The obvious reason why Cell towers and radio stations put their antennae up high.) With the information given, including the router was "several inches above the ground", the question was one quick tweak, the first easy obvious thing is raising the router, which should help anyone that has their equipment lower than it could be. I tried to include info regarding it overheating, as you did. Hopefully this person will heed our warnings.

Bryan Clark

June 13, 2015 at 8:00 am

All of these tips are helpful, and could help you to increase speed. The only one that's actually time consuming would be heatmapping your house, so you are obviously free to skip that.

It's really impossible to answer without knowing the particulars. Nearly every tip on here takes a few minutes at most, so you should give a few a try, or go through the whole list.

-But- if I'm forced to answer without knowing any specifics of your setup, I can tell you that uploading your firmware and tweaking the settings a bit (particularly, boosting the signal strength) is probably the best "bang for your buck" quick fix for added speeds. That said, it really depends on a lot of factors, and I'm not aware of all the particulars, so your mileage may vary.

The 'B' protocol is the oldest and slowest of all. Unless you have some really old equipment, by that I mean approximately10 years or older, then you can probably drop that one. The 'G' protocol is also older and some of your equipment, or printers, etc. may still use that. Many routers have where you can select which protocols to use in combinations, such as choosing 'AC, N and G' will allow only devices with those protocols, B would be dropped, or selecting 'AC and N' only would drop G and B protocols. That way you can choose to drop only what you don't need. Same works for routers such as N routers and so forth. Easy enough to check with your model numbers of your equipment online to see what protocol each device is uses. That way you shouldn't need to change any actual hardware until you're ready. If you miss something, it's easy enough to add back any, or all of the protocols. Test it and find out, you can always put it back. :)

If your PC uses a wireless card that still uses (for example) "B," then it should be well past the point of replacement anyway. It shouldn't cause any issues, but it's worth looking at because even occasionally connecting old devices (say, those that use "G") can slow down your entire network. It's better to just disable them.

Like Laird says, if you find that you really need it, you can always add it back in your router settings.